Two little girls who were 'physically assaulted' by school bullies have had to leave school, according to their mum.

Michelle Murray says her daughters Aimee-Rose Reynolds, now six, and her sister Lilah-Grace, four, have come home with bruises, grazes and covered in mud as a result of being shoved around in the playground.

She claims Aimee-Rose had a clump of hair pulled out of her head by a group of boys which left her with a bald patch so big she had to have her hair cut to hide it.

Michelle says she has had meetings with the school and has written to Ofsted and Birmingham City Council but claims no-one is prepared to help her children.

Teachers at the school - Ark Kings Primary Academy in Kings Norton - say they have received no formal complaint from Michelle.

Two weeks ago, Michelle decided to take her girls out of the school and home educate them herself.

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According to Michelle, the bullying began in September 2017 when Aimee-Rose was just five and in Year 1.

"Everything was fine when she started in reception," said Michelle, who lives in Kings Norton with her husband Daniel, a plumber. Then in Year 1, she was physically assaulted by a group of boys who pulled a clump of hair out of her head.

"She came home with a bald patch that bad I had to cut her hair to cover it up. To see someone hurt your child like that, well, it just broke me."

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Response from Ark Kings Academy

A spokesman for Ark Kings Academy said: "We take the safeguarding and wellbeing of our pupils very seriously at Ark Kings.

"We have extensive feedback from parents who feel their children are well-supported by the school.

"To help with this, we have robust complaints and anti-bullying policies that we follow at all times.

"Whenever concerns are raised by parents or pupils, we investigate them thoroughly and resolve them promptly.

"In this instance, we have not received a complaint from the parent."

Michelle claims she sent two handwritten letters of complaints to the headteacher.

"They didn't respond to my letters," she said.

"I even wrote a letter asking for a response about removing the girls off their registers so I had a copy to show the home ed team at the council if they got in touch with me.

"I still haven't heard anything from them."

Marks on Lilah-Grace's arm (Image: Darren Quinton/Birmingham Live)

Michelle's complaints

Michelle wrote to Ofsted but was told the government education standards body does not investigate individual cases so her complaint was referred to Birmingham City Council.

An email from the council to Michelle said: "The Education Safeguarding team has received a copy of the complaint you sent to Ofsted regarding Ark Kings Academy school as Ofsted do not investigate individual cases.

"We are therefore reluctant to investigate your particular case.

"In order to ensure that all complaints are dealt with fairly and appropriately there is a formal process in place that should be followed with school complaints.

"The school you are concerned about should have their formal complaints procedure published on their website.

"Before your complaint can be looked at by the Local Authority (in the case of maintained schools) or the Regional Schools Commissioner (in the case of Academies) in the majority of instances a complaint will need to be investigated by the Head Teacher and /or by the Governing Body.

"Therefore you will need to raise your complaint directly with the school for them to action, you mention that you have already spoken to the Heads, but you need to raise your concerns with them formally and ask for an investigation and written response.

"If you remain unhappy with the outcome of their investigation and feel that there are remain outstanding safeguarding concerns you then challenge the Head's report and ask the Governing Body to formally investigate. It is only after this stage that the Education Safeguarding team can consider an investigation into your complaint."

Alternative schools

Michelle is actively trying to get her daughters into alternative schools.

But she says the idea of this is frightening her girls.

"They are both scared in case they get bullied again at another school," she said. "I'm really upset because you do everything for your children, you fight for them. I've gone to these people for help and they've refused it.

"Home schooling is really hard. I have a one year old son and it's difficult to try to get the girls to focus on what they should be doing at school.

"My eldest daughter keeps saying bullies are really horrible, I just can't take it Mummy. And my youngest has changed, becoming so shy and timid and clingy to me. It's heartbreaking to see."